The subject matter disclosed herein relates to refrigerator appliances, and more particularly to increasing energy efficiency and reducing manufacturing costs in such refrigerator appliances.
One common configuration of a refrigerator appliance is known as a top mount configuration. In a top mount configuration, the freezer compartment is located above the fresh food compartment.
A traditional airflow system in such top mount refrigerators utilizes an air tower mounted towards the rear of the freezer compartment. In the air tower-based airflow system, air is drawn over an evaporator coil by an evaporator fan and thereby cooled. Note that the evaporator is the part of the refrigeration system through which refrigerant passes to absorb and remove the heat in the compartments being cooled (e.g., freezer compartment and fresh food compartment). This cooled air is then pushed into the air tower by the evaporator fan. An upper diffuser section of the air tower diffuses a portion of the cooled air it receives from the fan into the freezer compartment. A lower duct section of the air tower directs another portion of the cooled air it receives from the fan into the fresh food compartment.
Such traditional air tower-based airflow systems are designed with a large amount of restriction, specifically in the lower duct portion of the air tower, to insure that the correct proportion of airflow is provided to the fresh food and freezer compartments. However, this large amount of restriction causes the airflow system to work harder, thus reducing the efficiency of the refrigerator.